Intertwined Destinies
by Noc007
Summary: This is a realistic look at a modern-age girl appearing in Middle Earth. With the barrier of communication met before her in a land she never even knew existed, how will Valerie be able to survive the harsh realities of this new world? What will her presence cause to the original events in the story? After all, a small disturbance in time can significantly alter everything...


**Note:  
**Well, it's been a while since I last written anything, but I'm back and with a new story to tell!

Granted, the idea of a girl dropping in Middle Earth is not all that original, but hopefully mine will be a tad _different_ – for starters, I'll be trying to make my story as realistic as possible. Second, pace is most important…don't you agree? Last but not least, there's really a story to be told through her experiences. In the end, this is all based on the honest-to-god real 'What if…' scenario. So I'll end this note with the following quote that will –somewhat- summarize the OC's experience while in Middle Earth:

"_My experience of life is that it is not divided up into genres; it's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky." _

- Alan Moore

* * *

**Chapter I  
Awakening**

_Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life.  
Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it._

- Henry Miller

* * *

_"Awaken, my child. . . "_

I groaned as I slowly awoken to the world only to rudely meet with a painful throb in the back of my head; my senses, though shrouded in a foggy sleep, was slow to react barely registering the damp cold that surrounded me. I coughed softly as I tried to stir myself so as to ease the ticklish feeling in the back of my throat. Such action had not helped - in fact, it seemed to have worsened the uncomfortable feeling. I tried to open my eyes but managed to partially do so when I realized I was laying with half of my face pressed against the ground. I could sense the surface was not that of a soft bedcover, much less the fibers of a carpet or even that of a cement pavement. No, this one felt cool yet prickly against my skin as if I lay on a patch of grass.

_Grass?_

I raised my head swiftly, about an inch off the ground, before I let it lolled; not only was there lack of light but my eyesight was incredibly blurry as I could only see darkness with a hazy edge to it. This, strangely enough, seemed to have turned the painful throb from the back of my head into a full-on headache; a headache that was curiously located to the frontal section of my head. It was an honest-to-god a very uncomfortable one. If I had not known any better, I would have thought I was suffering the effects of a hangover, but there was no way in hell I would have been caught dead with any kind of alcohol in my system, not after. . . no, this was a completely a different feeling. Perhaps it was the food I ate earlier tonight? _It would not count for the fact that I felt it in my head and __not __in my stomach. _This was, indeed, a very strange feeling and an uncomfortable one at that.

Even so, I tried to blink away the blurriness and as I did I slowly breathed in through my mouth. A big mistake, as that only led me to a coughing fit that left my throat feeling even worse than it had at the beginning. Slowly, this time around, I breathed in through my nose as I propped myself up with my forearms. By doing so, not only had this eased up my coughing but had given me a clear view of where I was from this low vantage point. At that precise moment when my eyesight adjusted themselves to the darkness of the night, my breath was suddenly cut off from my lungs as my eyes went wide with shock.

_Where the hell am I?_

I was no longer in the alley I was previously walking in; I could not see the common cracked blacktop of the street pavement and much less the car I driven in. There was, literally, _nothing _I could recognize other than the dark abundant of trees, their branches and leaves that hovered over my head and the shrubbery that lay amongst the tree trunks. '_We're no longer in Kansas, Toto.' _ I thought mockingly as I felt my heart beat against my chest with the realization of my situation. It was apparent I was no longer in my city as I never been in a location where nature was in such abundance.

_Is this a forest. . .?_

Growing up in San Diego, a city which bordered on the Pacific Ocean, _never _had I set foot on a place where a large number of trees and foliage surrounded me to this degree. I was used to seeing buildings after buildings, the ocean and the beaches but the only place that was remotely a forest was Balboa Park. Even then, Balboa Park was not a forest by the whole meaning of the word as museums, with their large building structures, practically cut through the park. But this, _this_. . . was _entirely _a different place altogether. Everything around me was eerily clear despite the darkness; I could see the faint outlines of the flowers and weeds that grew from the ground with the help of the moonlight. It was nothing like I had seen before. Perhaps -_no _- it was because I had grown up in a coastal city that gave me this jolt, after all, how strange was it to wake up in a forest with grass as my bedding?

_Strange, that's for sure. . . _

I slowly pushed myself off the ground, letting my arms get accustomed to the feeling of being used again; I noticed that, along with the headache, coughing and the damp atmosphere, my arms were feeling pathetically week. There was even a painful pressure against my chest but I blamed that on two things: one, I was clearly laying on my stomach for an immeasurable amount of time; two, the fact on having more than your average size lady lumps pressing against an unyielding surface was the most to blame. Contrary to popular belief, having your breast press against something flat to cause that mouthwatering cleavage effect was not a pleasant feeling at all.

After I pushed myself into a comfortable sitting position, an action that should not have been as painful as it was, did I suffer another revelation. As I sat there, my situation forgotten momentarily, I had looked up to the sky - against the darkness of the night, the incredible radiant stars surrounded a waning moon. So bright and clear they were, I could not help but let out a soft gasp of awe escape from me as I stared at the beautiful sight above. Had it not been for the dark outlines of the clouds that scattered across the sky, the beauty would have been complete. This was the first time I ever seen something like this with my own eyes, since living in a city would not allow for such natural beauty to shine through. Seeing this was beyond amazing, so incredible and as much as I was in awe by it there was one tinsy-tiny problem. . .

_How the hell did I end out here in the forest?!_

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I slowly exhaled, trying to see if it'll ease my headache but to also control my nerves. I could sense my heart was beating faster than normal - a natural reaction to my situation, sure, but I had to control myself. A couple of minutes later -as I was sure that's how long it must have been- I still sat on the same spot I had awoken just minutes ago; I could still feel my heart beating wildly against my chest, clearly the breathing exercise had not helped. "Where the hell am I?" I muttered as I brushed off something from my cheek with the back of my hand. I was not one to easily freak out but. . . _Okay, there was no need to freak out. . . yet._ I just needed to mentally jot down what was happening here. After all, I could not just have appeared here out of thin air.

No, there was a rational explanation for this.

I was meeting with a couple of friends earlier for a celebratory get-together at one of their apartments; I was planning to leave early so as to have dinner with my father as it was my turn to cook dinner. Since this was a last-minute event with the friends, I did not leave a message for him and much less left anything for him to eat; such events with my friends tend to run until midnight, if not later. While I was aware my father would not starve by me not being there, it was a ritual of sorts that was started since I was seventeen - unceremoniously established when my mother passed away seven years ago. Naturally my friend's apartment was located in a city and not in a forest. So, how the hell could _this _be explained? Let's see. . . I was socializing, had something to drink that was non-alcoholic, walked out to my car, there was a flash a light and then. . .

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

_Holy shit. . . _

It had to be or how the hell did I end up out here?

This was a prank and not just any prank but the "payback" one - a heavy one at that if it required me to be knocked out!

It couldn't be more obvious - _this _looked too much like the one I did on Jessica. _Shit_, I should have known it was coming sooner or later; after all, I had masterminded the one where I left her topless at the beach with no wallet, phone or keys to get back home. Surely this prank could not have been pulled off by her alone, she had people to help her and who better than my _lovely_ friends? She had it all worked out and just needed to wait until I was asleep -as she had been on that day- but, as I was very much awake, she had to take it a bit further for her plan to work. Oh yes, had I not been on the receiving end I would certainly have found this plan to be both clever _and _amusing to watch from afar.

"Okay," I said aloud so they could hear me as there was a possibility they were hiding behind the trees. "I get it Jess. Leave poor Valerie alone and watch her pathetically stumble across unknown territory!" I looked over my shoulders as I thought I heard movement, "but, I must remind you. There was no need to recycle my idea - after all, this was once my prank."

This explained everything: waking up in a strange location with a painful headache and no idea how I got here with noth-

_Nothing?_

I immediately got onto my feet as fast as I could, which was not as fast as I wanted it to be, and looked around for the one thing I had with me before I woke up in this mess. Thankfully, with my eyes already adjusted to the semi-darkness, I spotted my small, black messenger bag lying not far from where I stood. I slowly trudged the short distance; my legs, despite them being strong enough to hold me up, felt as weak as my arms had. It honestly felt as if I never had used them before, practically numb as if they had 'fallen asleep'. Something was wrong, I could tell but I couldn't quite pin point as to the _what_; with my knowledge that I had learned from Nursing school, I knew this could _possibly _be linked to my brain, _that_, or I been 'out' longer than I thought.

Once I had my bag at hand, I undone the clasp and rummaged through to see if anything was amiss, and to my surprise, everything was where it should be. My wallet, my smartphone, even the small unopened bag of chips was all there.

_Why had Jess not taken this away from me like I did to her?_

That question shouldn't have bothered me but it did.

There was something a little bit... _strange_ about this.

A sudden gust of cold wind blew all around me, forcing my dark, shoulder length hair to whip around my head wildly. A second or so later, the gust turned into a light, albeit cold, breeze. Automatically, I looked up to the sky and not only noticed the clouds slowly drifting away from my direction but the night was also receding - morning was coming. It was becoming a chilly dawn; with only a white fitted shirt and black denim pants that flared at the bottom, I had nothing to keep me warm from the chilly atmosphere.

I rubbed my upper arms to keep the goose bumps away. "Wouldn't have hurt if you guys left a sweater for me," I said but not loud enough as before. "I suppose I should thank you Jess for leaving behind my phone - I'll be able to make that call after all." I said aloud, referring to the call I was supposed to make last evening as I pulled out the phone from my bag.

Unlocking my iPhone, I was immediately greeted with one voice message that waited to be heard but was not enough motivation to hear it first. It was in fact the _time _that caught my attention. Six-fifty-seven in the morning - twelve hours to the minute since I last stood outside of my car.

_Have I really been out that long?_ Must have been fed sleeping pills. I let out a sigh with a roll of my eyes - _Jessica was clearly milking this prank_.

Sliding a finger against the screen to open my voice inbox, I noticed the message was from my father sent at five in the afternoon. Raising the phone to my ear, I listened: _"Hey sweetie, I know you're out with your friends so there's no reason to worry that I'll starve - I know how to cook -he chuckled- I'll just wait for you to call ba-ssshhhwwwssshhhwwwhswhs-" _

Immediately I pulled the phone away and looked at the screen, "that's strange." Not only had the call been cut off but was followed what sounded like white noise before _that _was cut off too. It was not something that had happened to me before nor had I heard it happen to anyone else. After I pulled up the dialing pad, hitting 'Home' and then 'Speakers', I waited to hear the familiar ring to resound from them. Nothing. Puzzled, I looked down to see how many bars I had only to notice I had a pretty strong signal. I let out a soft 'huh' escape through my lips as I re-dial home. Like before, there was no ringing.

_Okay..._

I hit a friends' number with the hope that it'll go through, but like before there was no ring. It was here that I realized I did not hear a dial tone either.

_What the hell... _

This did not made much sense - if I was getting a pretty strong signal, how was it that I couldn't connect to anyone or anything? _Better yet how was it that I could pull up my voice messages if..._

After a swipe here and there, I realized that the voice message was _downloaded _to my phone, which meant that whatever happened to mess up my signal had happened _after _it downloaded. I listened on to the message again and it was just as before - white noise before it was cut off. As I stared at the screen confounded by what had happened did I catch all four signal bars disappear from the upper left corner of my phone.

'_Well then,' _I thought with a sigh of relief, _'it was slow but it happened_'.

I was no longer surprised by my lack of phone signal; after all, being in the middle of what appeared to be a forest, it was to be expected. I let out a scoff at this. I doubt anyone would build a cell phone tower amongst the many trees and disturb the natural ecosystem.

"Okay Jess," I started with my voice loud enough so my lovely friend -and her cohorts- could hear. "I get the reason why you didn't take my phone away - it wouldn't work out here. Well, just to remind you my shift starts at nine and I doubt you'd like me to arrive late unless," I perked up an eyebrow, "that's part of your prank." I scoffed as I twirled around, reacting to a noise coming from somewhere behind me. "That and getting a cold," I last said as I rubbed my arms again.

If she, as well as the others, were eager to keep the prank going, I knew they would not step in. Knowing them, they would not come out and end the prank. Now that I think about it, I would have to curl up into a ball and cry out for help for them to appear - just as I done with Jessica.

Ha.

I had to play by their rules - fine then.

I was _not _going to give them that satisfaction of curling into a ball and cry out for help.

So what if I never hiked in a forest before? I'm sure it would not kill me if I use my common sense. Knowing the prank was going on, there was no reason for me to freak out. Besides, I'm bound to come across some form of civilization that or get a signal on my phone.

One way or another I'm going to find my way out of here.

* * *

_Review?_


End file.
